Joy as popular city restaurant celebrates its 10th birthday

Staff at steak and lobster house Relentless served hundreds of covers over the weekend as they reignited a popular diner offer for their 10th birthday.

In a hark back to the Port Solent eatery’s past, guests were treated to three courses for £20 – a popular deal when it formerly operated from Elm Grove in Southsea.

This, said owner Scott Matthews, was his company’s way of ‘giving back’ to those who had offered up their custom over the past ten years.

Mr Matthews, who kick-started the brand when he was 21, said: ‘The past 10 years have been a learning curve but we have had a brilliant time.

‘We’re going below price by putting our lobster forward in this £20 deal, but it is our way of giving back.

‘We’ve had lots of support from people over the years and I never dreamed we would end up in a place as good as Port Solent – it’s big boy territory.’

Along the way, Mr Matthews and his team have faced challenges – one of the biggest was when they were sued by drinks giant Coca-Cola in 2010.

The firm claimed the eatery’s sign could confuse people with its Relentless-brand energy drink.

‘I was very worried when that happened,’ said Mr Matthews.

‘But in the end we backed down and came to a settlement, which I think was probably for the best.

‘They redesigned our logo for us and to date we’re the only company to have our logo designed by Coca-Cola.’

With the episode now long behind them, the Relentless team is looking ahead to the future – with the cash kitty for 2018 already looking good.

Mr Matthews said: ‘We’re up seven per cent on last year, thanks to the fact January was our best in 10 years.

‘Now we’re just really looking forward to the summer time.

‘In a location like this it’s busy, but the weather brings people out and the team I’ve got here is great.’

With another 17 years on Relentless’ Port Solent tenancy, head chef Maciej Ruszkowski added: ‘I left national projects to come to Relentless and the future looks good.’